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D.C. Area Babies
Ear piercing
im having a my first baby (girl) and im due on 9/10/11. alot of people have told me something different about getting her ears pierced. some people tell me they did it in the hospital, others say at 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, etc.
im giving birth at sibley...does anyone know if they do it there when they are born?
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Re: Ear piercing
what's the rush? having a newborn is so much work, I would not worry about ear piercings! I have never heard of anyone getting it done in the hospital, I think making sure the baby is healthy and eating well is what the nurses and Drs are for.
Personally, I plan to wait until my DD is old enough to ask for it and then decide. I am very glad I did not get my ears pierced as a baby. When I was about 10 my Mom wanted to get them pierced but I didn't want to. I never thought I would and I would have hated it if that decision was made for me. I did it on a whim in my 20s and wouldn't have had it any other way.
my advice would be to wait until she's a little older, I know some ENTs do it.
I think they have to be 3 months old. Some pediatricians do it.
Sofka, I'm with you. Natty will have to ask me. It will probably be awhile bc I think as soon as I say "needle gun" she will lose her nerve. ;-)
BFP #1 mm/c at 12w1d
To answer your question, our ENT did it. We couldn't do DD1's when she was a baby because she had chronic ear infections and we wanted to be able to distinguish ear pulling (pain from earring vs pain from ear infection). We had hers done the second time she got tubes (at 2.5). We had DD2 done around 7 months. She cried for a few minutes and it was over. She never pulled on them, etc.
I think it's a cultural thing and a personal preference. Do it if it's right for your family. If she doesn't like it, she can always take it out. It's not permanent, like say, a nose job or circumcision.
I know it's cultural for some people, so while I wouldn't do it until DD was old enough to care for her ears herself, I understand why some have it done much earlier. My concerns would be, like PPs said, about ear-pulling (which is often related to teething or ear infections) causing the holes to not heal properly. Also, this is random, but my DD loved to massage her own ears when BFing or taking a bottle...it was like a self-soothing thing. If she'd had earrings at the time, there might have been problems.
My concern about getting it done at the hospital is that infants are still somewhat squished up and their features haven't "settled." Because of that, I don't know if I'd trust the person to get the holes positioned just right. Plus, what is their background in doing it, and how frequently do they do it? I'd probably wait to go to my pediatrician and get recommendations from them (or just have them do it) so I'd be more confident. I've seen little girls with holes that are completely asymmetrical, lopsided, or look as if the hole is barely within the earlobe. Is that because it was done too early or because a random nurse was handed an ear gun? I'd be pretty mad at my parents if they'd made that decision for me as a baby and someone messed up the procedure.